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| Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., second from right, during a Cuban Day Parade. Do readers really care how much campaign cash he has amassed? |
Readers surely are bewildered yet again by the choice of Page 1 stories for The Record's Sunday edition -- once the premier edition of the week.
Judging from the turnout of police officers shown in the A-1 photo, you'd think a chief of state died instead of an off-duty Newark detective who probably would still be alive, if a sleazy Paterson strip club had hired another off-duty cop as security.
Victim, not hero
Is an off-duty cop who was walking a dancer to her car at 3 in the morning Monday -- and who was shot by a robber before he could draw his service weapon -- really a "true hero," as the headline says?
Or, was he the victim of a predator who robbed another dancer only 25 minutes earlier outside another club in a city cursed by a Police Department with a miserable record of controlling gun violence?
Campaign trash
I read every word of the front-page story on Sen. Robert Menendez's mountain of campaign cash, but wondered why Washington Correspondent Herb Jackson didn't discuss attempts to reform a corrupt system that gives the upper hand to special interests.
A political story that belongs on Page 1 -- one readers of The Record will never see -- is how partisan rhetoric has paralyzed Congress and literally stopped progress.
Changes to the Roman Catholic Mass on the front page -- in one of the most religiously diverse regions of the world?
Boring readers
Hey, interim Editor Doug Clancy, didn't you have anything of general interest for A-1? Why isn't this story on the Religion Page?
This is only your second Sunday paper, but you're boring readers to death. And it's not as if Francis "Frank" Scandale is a tough act to follow as editor.
On A-2, the same headline appears twice in the People In The News column -- more great quality control by Liz Houlton's news copy desk.
Out of control
Jeez. Look at the Road Warrior column on the front of Local today -- the section that is the pride and joy of head Assignment Editor Deirdre Sykes.
Why is Staff Writer John Cichowski focusing on a New Milford resident who was stopped for driving more than 90 mph in Georgia??? What does that have to do with the North Jersey commuting problems he is supposed to be writing about?
I continue to look in vain for Hackensack news.
More indigestion
On the Better Living front, here's another moronic Sunday column from Restaurant Reviewer Elisa Ung, this one on a waitress' pet peeves (F-1).
Someone should tell waitress Karin Frei to direct her anger at her boss, who pays her slave wages and puts the burden on customers to tip her sufficiently so she makes a decent living.
Stop bitching about customers. You're lucky to have a job.
Isn't it rich to see Travel Editor Jill Schensul promoting inter-generational travel from a newsroom that favors younger employees over veterans, with only a few exceptions (T-1)?
Spot on assessment of today's paper, Victor. "Interim Editor" is too kind a title and (we hope)mercifully short in tenure.
ReplyDeleteIs there anyone out there that can edit this paper?
Sen. Robert Menendez, D-N.J., second from right, during a Cuban Day
ReplyDeleteParade. Do readers really care how much campaign cash he has amassed?
Better question: Why does anyone from Bergen give a sh*t about some Hispanic state senator at a Cuban parade?
That's the title Doug Clancy has been given. Why him is a puzzle. He's been out of reporting and editing for eons.
ReplyDeleteAs the newsroom budget guy, he removed every other phone on the news copy desk, so the copy editors had to fight over the phones when they wanted to call reporters to correct all the inaccuracies left in stories by the assignment desk.
More significantly, he cut out money for ergonomic furniture, so the copy editors were working with furniture left over from the typewriter era.
Computer screens were brought to their proper levels by placing telephone books under them, and you had to ask and ask and ask for wrist pads.
A few copy editors wore braces around their wrists because of pain and injury.
There are many Cuban-Americans living in Bergen County.
ReplyDeleteUnion City is no longer the Cuban population center it was a couple of decades ago, though most of the Cuban restaurants still operate there and in West New York.